Fighting disease and stigma

GUWAHATI: Manish Singh (name changed) was admitted to a private hospital for treatment recently. He had to undergo a surgery after he fractured his leg in an accident. Like any responsible AIDS patient, he reported his condition to the hospital. But after a few hours, the doctors discharged him from the hospital without conducting an operation.
Like Manish, Pushpa Brahma (name changed) also faced a similar sitgma attached to the disease.She was admitted to a government hospital of the city for uterus surgery. There, she was not allowed to use the bathroom and the doctors refused to attend to her.
"My mother felt it was necessary to inform the doctors that I am HIV positive since I had to undergo a surgery and there are chances of contracting infections. Soon after they were told about my status, the doctors discharged me and I had to undergo the surgery at another hospital," said Manish.
Across the state, it will be hard to find hospitals which conduct any surgical procedure on AIDS patients or HIV positive people, alleged Janavi Goswami, president of Indian Network of Positive People (INPP) and employee of Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS).
"There are about 9,000 HIV-positive people in the state and they are not only fighting AIDS but also the stigma attached to it. In 2012-13, about 10 AIDS patients had to face discrimination in different government and private hospitals of the state while undergoing treatment. Since these people filed a complaint for this reason, we came to know about it. But there are many such people who face the same stigma."
She said different organizations working for AIDS have informed about such cases of discrimination to ASACS several times, but they hardly paid any interest. After getting instruction from the higher authorities, they formed a committee for monitoring all these things but till date they did not submit any report to the government.
"There is an anti-discrimination law passed by the Supreme Court under which people can file complaints if hospital authorities show any negligence or if the doctors refuse to provide any treatment. This law is not only for HIV/AIDS patients but also for other diseases too. But here, awareness regarding this law is very less as a result of which people are facing discrimination," she added.
Goswami said now they are carrying out high level sensitization meetings for the superintendents of different government hospitals to contain discrimination arising out of the stigma.